Your Toy Portrait - Custom Toy Portraits by Jennifer Maher » chicken

Puffy, Chicka Chicka, Chicki Chicki

Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait — Mon, 02 May 2011 04:00:52 +0000

9″x12″ acrylic, 2011. Although I adore bunnies and bears, this trio of unlikely bird friends was such a delight for me to paint! Puffy, Chicka Chicka, and Chicki Chicki have been the favorite companions of Bharathi’s daughter, who is now ten, since she was six. Bharathi writes, “It’s pretty adorable to see her in her airplane seat with these stuffies tucked under her arms (especially ’cause she’s a mature looking 10 and prone to reading things like “A history of ancient Britain.”) The contrast reminds me that even when she seems really grown up, she’s still a kid.” At one point, a proposed back-up Chicka Chicka was dismissed by her daughter as being “pretty much like suggesting we get a back-up brother.” Well put!

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Choo Choo and Hoo Hoo

Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 03:41:44 +0000

11″x14″ acrylic, 2009. Here’s an older sketch of two of Sonja’s little favorites. They are each about the size of an adult hand, and she has an assortment of animals about that size lined up along the top of her head board. I will admit that most of them were collected by my husband and myself long before she was born! Choo Choo Chicken was named when we found Sonja chewing on his foot as a baby… so I suppose that, really, we should spell it “Chew Chew?” It occured to me to post it today when I was amazed to stumble upon this post about a lost stuffed chicken identical to Choo Choo. We purchased ours from Target many years ago around Easter time, but I’ve never seen it anywhere since… hope they’re able to find another! Here are pre-Sonja portraits of Choo Choo and Hoo Hoo.

Order a print of this painting:

More info about prints here.

Mademoiselle Louise

Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:57:35 +0000

8″x10″ acrylic, 2010. I LOVE this crazy, knit chicken! It is part of the L’atitude Enfant series of stuffed animals, as are our other knit friends Don Gato and this cow. I bought it at Target for Sonja when I was about two minutes pregnant, having been waiting for an excuse. But Sonja is frustratingly diplomatic with her toys, and seems to select a new one or two each day to dote upon. She is working methodicly through our collection and has yet to show much interest in poor Louise. When Sonja was a newborn I would often waggle the chicken in front of her face, babbling in high-pitched french — maybe Louise has already had her moment in the sun.

Burberry Chicken

Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:06:57 +0000

8″x10″ acrylic on canvas, 2009. This stylish chicken was given to 5-year-old Oona by awesome artist Ralph Steadman! He’s the guy who drew all those famous, wild illustrations of Hunter S. Thompson, among many other things, and he worked with Oona’s mom at a literary agency. Apparently Oona has lately been focusing her affections on a somewhat more “glamorous” toy, but her little sister Daphne, 3, has taken him under her wing.

Choo Choo Chicken/Ikea Bear

Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:58:32 +0000

9×12 oil on canvas 2005 — I have to confess — I not-so-accidently misplaced this white bear when we moved into this house. I just always got a bad vibe from it. I bought it at Ikea many years ago, liking it’s bizarre proportions, but it had a weasel-y, unpleasant expression and creepy felt claws. I never wanted it to be in the room with the baby, so now it’s gone. However, the chicken in this picture has become Sonja’s most crucially important toy!

This painting arrives wired for hanging and framed simply in pine.
$100.00 plus $7 shipping

Domo/Penguin/Chicken

Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:50:15 +0000

10×12″ acrylic on canvas 2009 — Around here we love Japanese design, including pop-culture characters such as Domo-kun. So here is our tiny wind-up Domo along with a penguin bath toy and a fat stuffed chicken. Can’t you just feel the situation comedy chemistry between them? You know that the chicken is the Newman, the penguin is Jerry, and Domo is probobly George.

This painting arrives wired for hanging and framed simply in pine.

$140 plus $7 shipping